Italian Premier stands by youth in struggle for jobs

27/06/2013

British PM holds up EU budget talks

(By Kate Carlisle)
Rome, June 27 - Italian Premier Enrico Letta said
that he would "fight together" with young people at the
European Union summit that started on Thursday.
One of the main issues to be tackled at the two-day summit
is the fight on youth unemployment and Letta insisted
this problem would feature at the top of the agenda.
Youth unemployment is a big problem in recession-hit Italy,
with around four in 10 people aged 15-24 out of work.
Most European countries are also struggling with a high
level of unemployment among young citizens.
On Wednesday Letta's left-right executive passed a package
of measures that it hopes will generate around 200,000 jobs for
under-30s by giving tax breaks to companies that take on people
in this age range.
Before entering the meeting with EU leaders, Letta told a
group of young Italians in Brussels who gave him a letter
calling for him to battle to create jobs for youngsters: "Today
we will fight together".
"The most important contest will be at the summit, where
this issue will be the first addressed by the European Council".
Following meetings earlier in the day, Letta said the
summit and discussions on youth unemployment and growth started
off on the right foot.
Two important accords on banks and budget policy were
reached earlier in the day.
EU finance ministers reached agreements on how to manage
possible future bank failures in the region, after talks on the
issue in Luxembourg failed to result in an agreement last week.
Thursday's agreement also laid the foundation for the
strengthening of the European banking union plan aimed at
sharing and strengthening supervision of the sector.
However, a proposed agreement for the 2014-2020 European
Union budget was held up by British Prime Minister David Cameron
because of proposed cuts in Britain's rebate won by Margaret
Thatcher in the 1980s.
EU sources said the reduction was "purely technical" but
Cameron insisted it would lop 100-200 million euros off rural
development funds.
A proposal rubber-stamped by the heads of the European
Parliament and EU overcoming months of divisions over a the
960-billion-euro budget to finance EU projects is expected to
get final approval next week, sources said.
EU sources said delegates were "determined" to avert
Cameron's stand to sink an overall agreement, including crucial
six billion euros in funds to combat youth unemployment
throughout the eurozone.
European leaders reached a preliminary agreement for the
seven-year budget at a summit in February, but its ratification
has been pending.